SHRINKFLATION: IT’S NOT YOUR IMAGINATION
Somehow you knew this already. The papers report that manufacturers are putting less stuff into our stuff, and the stuff we now buy isn’t as much stuff as the stuff we used to buy. You were right, Gentle Reader. When you picked up that bag of potato chips last week at the grocery store, you thought it felt lighter than usual. And it appears as though they are indeed selling you more and more air.
It’s called shrinkflation, and even for those of us who keep up with the news regularly, it is a new term: When inflation becomes so burdensome for companies, some of them will put less product on the shelf, but charge the same for it. (Or even more.)
You pick up a plastic bottle of some sports energy drink and it may be a few ounces lighter. Or a box of tissue a few tissues short. Or yogurt that comes in a newer, smaller package. It’s something manufacturers find the need to do. Because most of their customers won’t notice the smaller size — or at least not the way they’d notice a price increase.
Thankfully, the gasoline companies haven’t figured out a way to make gallons smaller.
Credit the Associated Press for digging into the matter as inflation keeps up its pace-setting run. Cereal boxes have less cereal. Bars of soap are smaller. Snack companies are putting fewer snack bars into packages.
“Shrinkflation isn’t new,” the AP says. “But it proliferates in times of high inflation as companies grapple with rising costs for ingredients, packaging, labor and transportation. Global consumer price inflation was up an estimated 7 percent in May, a pace that will likely continue through September, according to S&P Global.”
Even toilet paper isn’t safe. The wire service counted, and one brand of toilet paper is selling rolls of 312 sheets today, instead of the former 340 sheets yesterday. (Now that’s a thorough investigative reporter.)
Maybe the kicker came when pizza companies started getting involved. The AP says Domino’s is now selling chicken wings eight to the box instead of 10 to the box (as it did before January), but charging the same amount. The horror, the horror.
There are many causes for inflation, and the shrinkflation that can follow: An increase in demand. A decrease in supply. But also government policy, like devaluation of money and an increased supply of currency.
The American voter might not use economic terms like personal consumption expenditures or Open Market Operations. But they will recognize when their bags of potato chips and boxes of chicken wings don’t go as far.
And woe be it to the political party in power.